Channel 4 coverage of Paralympics

So I made it to the games and am now an official resident in the Paralympic Village. It’s amazing to walk round an enclosed campus, with heavy security, and to see so many disabled people in one place. There is an enormous food hall with every type of cuisine catered for, there is even a fully kitted out McDonalds! All the apartment blocks have been given team makeovers and it really is a sight to behold to see the flags and banners of all the nations living together united by sport.

Despite my previous reservations I am happy to say that my uniform fitting went very well and everything fits! We have a few technical meetings and our Wheelchair Fencing competition begins on 4 September at 9.30am. We are currently in the training hall at Excel whilst the hall previously used for visual impaired Judo is converted to the Fencing Hall, we are hoping it will be ready on time.

Hopefully you may have been able to catch some of the TV coverage on Channel 4. For me it’s been a mixed bag with some good stuff and some pretty poor commentaries. In particular the Opening Ceremony was so depressing as virtually each team was introduced as being ‘war torn’ or ‘civil war’. I do personally have issues with the use of ‘superhumans’ to describe the athletes, but it seems C4’s angle is to promote the ‘journey’ and overcoming adversity – at least it’s on TV I suppose…

I was pleased to hear that the Post Office agreed to continue the theme from the Olympics by celebrating Gold Medal winners at the Paralympics with a commemorative postage stamp, however I would have preferred the irony of the stamp being second class, perhaps to reflect the attitudes still prevalent to disabled people?